63 replies to this topic

[Peter R]

I love these ghosts. It's the first pacman game I've ever got past level 2 on with skill and not by random luck. Yes, I know I suck It's also got some really great modes. One of which i particularly love.

[quasist]

Is there any bossed and secret levels with nazis (Wolfinstein3D had secret level of pack-man)???

[pferguso]

Hey Ruckage, I just realized you forgot to mention in the description a couple things:

3 difficulty settings
Separate customizable volume controls for music/SFX
High Score Table for each of the 4 game modes that saves automatically
Level Selection

There is just a TON of little things that make this game so wonderful. It is very addictive. And I'm not just saying that cause I did the music. This game is a "must have" for your GP2x.

OK, I'll get down off my soapbox now.

Go Ruckage!

Edited by pferguso, 08 July 2007 - 11:15 PM.

[berighteous]

I finally got to download it and play it from the gbax site.

FANTASTIC!! The game looks and play very nice. Definitely the sweetest thing I've seen for the gp2x in a while. great job!

[Aki]

This is really, really great. This could be a commercial game!

[ruckage]

This is really, really great. This could be a commercial game!

Thanks , really pleased you like it.

If anyone has any suggestions for improvements I'd be pleased to hear them. How are you all finding the controls, pferguso has suggested adding diagonal support to aid with navigating the maze, e.g to make it easier to go through zig-zag sections so rather than having to do a quick 'up left up' you would just hold diagonal up/left and Ruck-man would do the rest. Another option would be to add support for using the A,B,X,Y buttons to control Ruck - might make it less fiddly than the stick and would be quick to add.

[satacoy]

If anyone has any suggestions for improvements I'd be pleased to hear them.

I think the game is amazing. I'm really impressed with the overall graphical look, you really have a lot of talent.

The only thing I've noticed that seemed odd was the collision detection. I kept not catching fruit that I swore I hit. Everything seems OK if you run completely over the fruit (or other objects, I assume), but if you partially run over it, then stop, you don't get the capture.

It was late last night when I noticed this, I'll try some more and see if I can reproduce.

Pete

[ruckage]

I think the game is amazing. I'm really impressed with the overall graphical look, you really have a lot of talent.

The only thing I've noticed that seemed odd was the collision detection. I kept not catching fruit that I swore I hit. Everything seems OK if you run completely over the fruit (or other objects, I assume), but if you partially run over it, then stop, you don't get the capture.

It was late last night when I noticed this, I'll try some more and see if I can reproduce.

Pete

Thanks for the feedback Pete.

The collision detection in Ruck-man isn't pixel perfect, instead it's based on the distance between objects. This is deliberate as otherwise the slightest touch of a ghost would prove fatal and be quite annoying. The same type of collision is used in many games including the original Pacman, you'll see if you play the original the ghosts overlap pacman quite a bit before a hit is registered.

I think the radius of the collision is about right for the ghost collisions but if the general consensus is that it needs to be more sensitive when it comes to collecting fruit etc. I can easily adjust it.

Edited by ruckage, 10 July 2007 - 02:51 PM.

[dj_orta]

Hey ruck , first of all great game! I put it on my 2x last night at 10pm and was planning on goin to bed a 11 because i had to be at a meeting at 8am. Well thanks to your game i was up till 2:30 in the morning! Very enjoyable and addictive indeed. But i do have a few suggestions. These are going to be nit picks but they are things that i think can push the game from being "great" to being "prefect". The collision detection on the dots needs to be changed. So many times ive gone for the last dot and thought i got it only to find out i actually missed it. The sound when picking up the dots needs to be changed to play EVERY time i pick up a dot. I usually get 2-3 dots per sound (i do some music production stuff so thats why the sound bugs me a bit). The font in the options and when paused needs to be changed to something a little more simple. The "game paused" and "options" look fine but the "start:continue" ect.. need to be a different more simplified font. The hi-score should look like the info section. Each mode should have its own page and it should have the top 5 scores for each mode. Sorry if it seems like all im doing is being negative beacuse i really do think your game is great but i think these improvements could make it amazing. Oh, i also like the idea to map the A,B,X,Y buttons as movement buttons in addition to the joystick. I would be very happy to donate money for these additions as i am well aware that these would take time and im sure you are very busy. Again great game!

[rlyeh]

top artwork!

[Squidge]

Only things I'd change is to grab the dots/power-pills easier (times I've had a baddy behind me, thought I'd grabbed a power pill and then turned around and been eaten is frustrating).

[pkostrze]

I just got done playin Ruck-man and have to say it's as polished and commercial looking as anything I've thrown on my SD card yet. Fun as hell and downright sexy, if I may say so... great work!

[ruckage]

Hey ruck , first of all great game! I put it on my 2x last night at 10pm and was planning on goin to bed a 11 because i had to be at a meeting at 8am. Well thanks to your game i was up till 2:30 in the morning! Very enjoyable and addictive indeed. But i do have a few suggestions. These are going to be nit picks but they are things that i think can push the game from being "great" to being "prefect". The collision detection on the dots needs to be changed. So many times ive gone for the last dot and thought i got it only to find out i actually missed it. The sound when picking up the dots needs to be changed to play EVERY time i pick up a dot. I usually get 2-3 dots per sound (i do some music production stuff so thats why the sound bugs me a bit). The font in the options and when paused needs to be changed to something a little more simple. The "game paused" and "options" look fine but the "start:continue" ect.. need to be a different more simplified font. The hi-score should look like the info section. Each mode should have its own page and it should have the top 5 scores for each mode. Sorry if it seems like all im doing is being negative beacuse i really do think your game is great but i think these improvements could make it amazing. Oh, i also like the idea to map the A,B,X,Y buttons as movement buttons in addition to the joystick. I would be very happy to donate money for these additions as i am well aware that these would take time and im sure you are very busy. Again great game!

Thanks for the feedback dj_orta,

Some of your suggestions are planned so will definately be in a future version:

The highcore tables will definately be added it was simply due to lack of time before the end of the competition that they aren't already in.

I agree the font can be a little hard to read in certain places so I will be adding an extra font.

I will be adding A,B,X,Y as I think some people will definately prefer to control it this way.

The pellet eating sound is something I'm working on and you wouldn't believe the headache it's caused me, personally I'm not happy with it either but it was the best I could achieve before the deadline. Despite seeming the obvious solution, playing a sound for each dot doesn't work - tried it and it sounded terrible. I have some ideas to get the sound closer to how I want though so it will be better in a future release.

Changing the collision detection for the dots could be tricky due to the way they work, despite appearances the pellets aren't individual objects but are instead all part of one object and collisions are checked against an array - it's done this way as it runs considerably faster than having 150 or more separate objects for the pellets. I will try and think of a way to increase the collision range a little but will really only consider changing it if it's something I hear mentioned by lots of people as it was never mentioned during beta testing and personaly I found it to be fine.

Only things I'd change is to grab the dots/power-pills easier (times I've had a baddy behind me, thought I'd grabbed a power pill and then turned around and been eaten is frustrating).

Hi Squidge, already replied to half your suggestion regarding pellet collision but the power pellets are a different matter as they could be replaced with separate objects and so easily have more adjustable collision (and as they are larger possibly warrant it more). Again it would depend on whether others see it as a problem at the moment.

[Alex.]

Yet another great game, Ruckage! Everything comes together very well, and the presentation is simply tops. I like the graphics, they're busy, but look great and colourful

My only suggestions are allowing for the action buttons to work as an alternative to the joypad (the joypad is not very good for quick reaction unfortunately), and yes, give the power pellets a larger collision box (it happened a couple of times that I've been chased by ghosts, walked into a corner to get the power pill, then turned around to eat the ghosts only to find that a collision with the pellet wasn't registered).

Again, great game, and I didn't even give all modes a serious try yet

[jbrodack]

i love the game like everyone else here. one thing i would like is to have the ghosts respawing slower. it seems right after you get rid of them they are right back at you. it seems to be more dangerous to attack the ghosts after getting a power a pellet than to just leave them scared due to this.

still i've had lots of fun with this. great presentation and cool game modes. i love that you were able to add unique powerups without adding guns or stuff like that that would take it away from really being a pac man game.

also off topic any chance of an update to or new version of protozoa?

Edited by jbrodack, 11 July 2007 - 01:01 PM.